Gabriel Leang
by James Hemlock Jr
Summary: Parents adopt a young boy from overseas, the boy asks an ominous question and it is answered by an action. R&R please! I'm very proud of it!


"Here you are, dear. Bacon, sausage, eggs, and a biscuit" The flight attendant smiled down at the kid, whom was staring out the window at the slowly approaching lady liberty. He saw the torch thrust into the air as if it was meant to rend the sky in two in clear defiance of the deities that made the sky whole and set it as the sky in the first place.  
  
"Give me your tired, your poor,   
  
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,   
  
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.   
  
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.   
  
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."   
  
It seemed to him that it was a pity, he had read that there were so many in America that were starving, and this message was mocking them. He didn't notice the flight attendant giving him breakfast and just continued to stare out of the window. Why did he have to get adopted in America? Why not stay in China? Anyway...he leafed through the papers again, there was a picture of each of his parents and a hand-written letter from each. He thought that was real nice...but he still wasn't sure.  
  
Wasn't the killer the one that always handled little formalities and details like this?  
  
He shook his head. He was just being paranoid, wasn't he? Sighing he read over the letter from his "Mom" again. It was really sentimental and gave away her excitement a good bit.  
  
Dear Gabe  
  
I can't wait to see you next week. Me and Mark--your Daddy--have talked about this for months and decided on you. We already have your room, you have your own bed and a window overlooking the backyard. Oh it's lovely--the backyard that is...not that everything else isn't--it has a trampoline, and a huge oak tree that I sit under all the time to read books that I get from the library. The library is just three blocks down the street! It's so wonderful here!  
  
I can't wait to see you, hun!  
  
Mom.  
  
And...the other one, from "Dad". This one was very formal and organized...filled with numbers and such that he assumed described the size of places.  
  
Dear Gabriel Leang  
  
I assume you are as anxious as we are, flying to America and coming to live with us. Take what belongings you feel you may need, but we have practically everything already purchased--thanks to the documents sent correctly gave us your size in clothes. We have your room completed, a 32" television equipped with a split adapter and gamecube, PS2, and Xbox, among them are adjoining games that we've picked out that we believe may stimulate your interest. Your room is roughly 32"x24". We have your clothes--school and play--in a red dresser and a futon bed that should be large for you. The walls are painted a light blue and your window shutters are a slightly darker blue. I've also called the cable company to hook the TV in your room with the cable TV we have in the living room and you'll be able to watch cartoons as you please. I await your arrival with great anxiety.  
  
Milicent DuFeur  
  
"Dad"  
  
Yes...it seems that his new "Father" is slightly strict and detail concerned. Anyways...Gabriel's headed into the heart of the coutnry...somewhat...into some state called Washington. From what he understood it was somehow a country within a country. He had quite a flight ahead of him. He picked out a bookfrom his bag and started reading.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
A day later of nothing but flight brought Gabriel Leang into Washington, north Washington near the border to Canada. His new parents lived in a suburb near a library and a public school, as if they had planned their recent life around him, which also lead him to believe they'd been talking about adopting a child for longer than a few months.  
  
He had walked up to his room and saw it was exactly how it was explained to him...the gaming systems, futon, the size--he could assume...he was only nine--The TV and he could see a black cable running into his room from the living room, which he assumed was the cable. He glanced out the window, and there was a trampoline and an old gnarled oak tree shedding golden, red, and brown autumnal leaves. On the drive from the airport he'd glimpsed a public school and a library and saw that school was still in session.  
  
He curled up on his futon, noting the Oriental dragons on the covers and looked pleased at theirthoughtfulness--if it be clich'ed or not. The jet-lag had caught up with him. He slept, and slept hard.  
  
It was nine o'clock by the time he was woke from his sleep by his parents, "Gabe?"  
  
"Let the boy sleep, Sarah."  
  
"He must be hungry, Milly"  
  
"Oh, all right..."  
  
Gabriel yawned and sat up, rubbing his light blue eyes and looking around. His long black hair falling a bit in his eyes. He climbed out of bed and looked his new parents over again. His mother was nice, if a little emotional at times, she had bluer eyes than Gabriel did and long dirty-blonde hair. His father was the business man he thought he'd be. Around the house he wore a greyish-blue button up shirt tucked into his trousers with thin wired spectacles and his hair slicked back with enough grease to give his head a good sunblock--he was balding slightly on the crown of his head.They were very nice--if oddly paired.  
  
Gabriel was led down to what his "mother" exclaimed to be "a real american dinner!" It turned out to be seasoned french fies and some hamburger helper, but after plane food for two days he'd have settled for take out at Wendy's.   
  
"Gabriel, do you like your new room?" His mother ask with a hopeful smile. He had liked his room, just for the fact it was his. If it was a white room with nothing but a bed and a closet he still would have liked it. At the orphanage he shared a dormroom with about 13 other boys, and a bathroom with the same number. He remembered every morning, wake up stay half asleep for as long as he could, then be last for a cold shower after all the hot water had been used by everyone else. He was used to it, but now and then he had hoped that he'd wake up completely before everyone else so he could take a warm one. The room to himself and the shower were one of the biggest things, the other--however clich'e he thought it was--was to actually have parents to take care of him.  
  
A big perk, he found out a few days later, were the video games that his new parents had bought him. He not only played them, but devoured them over the next few weeks after school--which he found unnerving because he was new and from another country, most of the kids wouldn't have anything to do with him. By christmas he was accustomed with everything and got down a routine; wake up directly from bed, get into the bathroom and take a (warm) shower, get dressed, grab breakfast, then make a run for the street because the bus was usually put-putting down the lane (it was an old junker of a bus...it surprised Gabriel's parents and Gabe himself that it hadn't been towed to the junkyard already...'although some grandchildren think of their grandparents like that'...Gabriel thought sullenly about a book that was on the subject when he saw the bus on the first day of school.)  
  
The school was a relatively small one, originating from one of those quaint little red schoolhouses with the bell that tolled for school when it was ready. It was just added onto as necessary every time the population increased. No one was mean there, but they weren't exactly inviting.   
  
It was around christmas when Gabriel found a real friend. Jake Williams, a scruffy dark haired boy from the other side of the street. Jake had a way of getting into minor mischief that caused so many problems for people then getting them to just laugh at it. Sarah and Milicent weren't exactly sure he was a good influence, but a friend was a friend and they knew it must be tough on him. So they didn't say anything.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Gabriel had just woken up and sat up. Rubbed his eyes and walked into the bathroom for a shower. It was a saturday, as soon as he made it down the stairs and started into the kitchen for breakfast, to find that there was none prepared. His father was absent and his mother was outside tending the garden. Was this how it was like to have a normal family? Be able to wake up and assume that everything was working like clockwork and that he was safe and protected in his home?   
  
He wasn't feeling quite safe yet. He had heard on the news about school shootings and bomb threats that seemed like only rumors and gossip back in china...but here in America, where they actually happened, you expected someone--at anytime--to come up and put a gun in your face and splatter your brains all over the pavement. He had walked outside and sat under the oak tree--like his new mother said she did in her letter to him--and thought, instead of reading...which he did a fair bit of. "Good morning dear," Sarah chimed in cheerily, "There are saturday cartoons on, do you want me to fix you a little bit of breakfast while you watch them?"  
  
Gabriel felt as if he were yanked from a living dream into just living, "No thanks, mom...I'm all right." He yawned, still slightly groggy from sleep. "Just thinking a bit" He plucked at grass absent mindedly and then picked up a pine cone and started stripping it bare and dropping it to the ground--the pine cone had come from a neighbor's pine tree that grew over the fence and actually intertwined with one or two branches of the large oak. "Mom...will there be a shooting at our school here? Will...will I die like those kids did in Columbine?"  
  
Sarah looked at him, as if in shock. She expected questions like, "Where do babies come from?", "Why did you pick me?", or even "Do...Do you love me mommy?" but....this just blew her mind. Partially that a child that young would ask something about that, let alone know it...and partially...she didn't know. The death of herself, her husband, or her new son were farthest from her mind.  
  
"Of course not, dear...why ever would there be a shooting at this little school?" She was struck with the well-known phrase, 'Famous Last Words' and her heart ached at knowing that it was possible...and now that her son had pointed it out to her, and the fact the he was completely terrified of it made her heart ache even more, if not even instill a bit of terror in herself.  
  
He smiled a bit, standing, "Thanks mom...I feel a bit better...um...may I still have some breakfast and cartoons?" He looked a bit hopeful. She couldn't help but think...that he's so fragile and strong at the same time...much unlike a kid who are usually either one or the other.   
  
She smiled back, though looked a bit unnerved at his question--although Gabriel didn't realize it--but still nodded and said that she would be happy to. She quickly moved into the kitchen and made Gabe a huge breakfast. Eggs, Bacon, sausage, biscuits, grits, along with some milk and orange juice. Arranged much like one of those commercials with the cereals that cheerfully exclaim, "Part of a balanced breakfast!"  
  
By the time of lunch there were no more decent cartoons on, just a few that he had seen far to many times and became bored with them.  
  
Sarah was out in the yard again, trimming up a bush when--not long after--she heard the door open. She smiled and thought her sweetie "Milly-cent" was home. There was a scream.  
  
"Mommy!!!" and a bunch of things being knocked over, then a gunshot and a thump.  
  
She felt numb, that same dread and terror building up within her. Almost passing out, she silently crept into the house holding the small garden spade she was using as a weapon close to her breast. She tapped the buttons on the silent alarm, "Police", "Fire", and "Ambulance"...she was almost in tears....she was still unsure of what that thump was...she kept telling herself, "Let it have been the cat....please god let it have been the cat." ...but she knew in her heart that it wasn't.  
  
She walked into the living room, there was red everywhere on her white couch, on the beige carpet and...all over...no...it couldn't be...it...Gabe...little Gabey...no...it couldn't be.  
  
"Gabey?" She choked and sobbed, somewhere down the street she heard a siren and knew they were coming...there was a clatter upstairs and a man...or a woman came down...she wasn't really sure because of the really loose black clothing, the mask, and the fact her tears had blurred her vision. The thief...or murderer had ran out the back and was later apprehended by police hiding in a childrens playhouse in a neighbor's yard.  
  
Gabriel Leang was rushed to the County Hospital, he arrived at 1:21 p.m. and was brought to the emergency room. It didn't look very good. Milicent arrived, exasperated and greatly upset. He ran to the waiting room and wrapped his wife into his arms tightly.  
  
"Is he okay, Sarah?" Milicent asked nervously, whispering gently into her ear.  
  
"I ... I don't know. But...I should have been there....I could have..." She started spurting out all of this as a fresh bout of sobs broke over her.  
  
"Shhh shhh...none of that. He'd not want to hear you say that. He knows it's not your fault." Milicent let a smile pass his lips as he remembered how happy Gabriel had been....then he stopped himself. 'No...he's not dead...not yet at least.'  
  
A doctor came in. "Come quick...he's conscious and he wants to see you...." Sarah and Milicent hurried down the halls to the room with their son in it. He was in ICU, hooked up to a bunch of machines. He had been shot in the left shoulder and there was a lot of bleeding...they didn't know if it had hit anything important yet. They prayed it didn't.  
  
"M-mom? Dad?" He breathed heavily, struggling with every word...every breath looked painful. "I...love you...don't leave me...please?"  
  
They both choked on sobs, struggling to say something. Milicent was the first to remember basic speech, "Son...we'll never leave you...we love you too." Sarah agreed, making sure her "Gabey" heard it. He reached up, a hand, an IV was coming from his wrist and other wires leading to huge looking machines. Sarah took it and Milicent took Sarah's hand.   
  
Gabe smiled as if a great weight had been lifted from him, his hand going limp and the machines around him proclaiming almost victoriously "Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....." Sarah dropped to her knees and sobbed into her hands. Milicent stared at the wall as if in shock, he couldn't believe it. He just left the room, looking as if he were in his own dream world, and bumping into a nurse and a couple doctors running in to try and ressucitate him, no use.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Neither Sarah nor Milicent remember the what happened next over the few days...the next thing they remember is the trip on the way home from the funeral service. They were both ashen face with bags under their eyes. Their eyes were bloodshot from weeping and there were tearstains on their cheeks trailing down to their chin where they either fell to the ground or were wiped off with a handkerchief or the back of a hand, whichever was most convenient at the time.  
  
'I'd do anything to get my son back...I miss him so much...he was with us for such a short time.' Milicent thought despairedly.  
  
'Anything, Milicent? Are you sure you want him back?' A voice asked him.  
  
'Yes, I am sure...I want him back so badly' Milicent answered back quickly.  
  
The voice was silent. He heard it again that night, as he was drifting off to sleep.  
  
'Are you sure you want him back, Milicent?'  
  
'Yes, I do...so so much' And with answreing the voice, he drifted off into a dreamless sleep. This went on for a few weeks, it was unnerving at first but then it was routine again...but on the last night of the third week...there was no voice. Just an awed silence in his mind, he had trouble getting to sleep that night, but when he finally did he found it was a muggy sleep, the kind of sleep that was hard to get up from no matter how long you slept.  
  
There was a knock at the door around noon. Sarah, answered it and there was a stunned silence and then a scream from Sarah. She ran upstairs like the man with the gun was back. There was a confused breathless whimper from the door, "Mommy?" The door shut and there was footsteps in the kitchen. "Daddy." there was a tug on his pant leg.  
  
Milicent gulped, turning around slowly. There was Gabe, in his funeral best staring up at him scared. "What's wrong with me daddy? I feel like i'm far away...I can barely breath..." Gabe whimpered, "I'm afraid."  
  
Milicent dropped a plate he was washing on the floor and it shattered into a million pieces. "G-Gabe...what are you doing here...your...your...supposed to be...be.." 'be what? dead?' Milicent thought, afraid...  
  
"Daddy..." Gabe was in tears. "What's wrong? I'm scared...my chest hurts so much..." He whimpered.  
  
"Gabe..." Milicent explained slowly, feeling strange...never thinking he'd be having this conversation with anyone, ever in his wildest dreams. "You're...supposed to be dead, Gabe..."  
  
"But...but daddy...I woke up...and I was in the neighbor's yard...I must have fell asleep under the pine tree...you were calling me...to wake up." Gabe was struggling to breath again, like he was in the emergancy room. "Daddy! Help me...please!"  
  
Milicent didn't know what to do..."I...you were dead..." Milicent leaned down and slowly, carefully, unbuttoned his vest and white undershirt to show him the blackened hole of the bullet wound.   
  
Gabe gasped, it all came back to him, "Daddy...you made me live again..." The hole in his chest had begun to bleed again, as if his heart began to beat fresh blood through his body. Gabe screamed pounding against his father's chest, "It hurts daddy! My chest! It HURTS SO MUCH!!! I can't breathe!" Gabe screamed louder and louder before Milicent couldn't take it anymore...he took the nearest thing and clubbed him with it. Gabe's eyes widened and once again glazed over with death...  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
It was the new year that found Sarah and Milicent in a white room, staring at a padded wall in a square and empty while room. They waited for a man to come feed them their New Years dinner...  
  
"Here I come Mister and Missus Defleur. Jake Williams came by wanting to wish you well..." A burly black man stepped into the room smiling to them as someone would someone who was crazy and pitied them. He sat down in front of them and fed them their new years dinner.  
  
In the corner, Gabriel's laughter filled his parents heads and they moaned as if in physical pain. 


End file.
